An hour day before Congress adjourned for a weeklong recess, co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) introduced H.CON.RES 70 concluding that “the United States should strongly oppose the Anti-Secession Legislation of the People’s Republic of China, as it will alter the status quo in the region and thus is of grave concern to the United States.”

Furthermore, the resolution concludes that “the President of the United States should direct all appropriate United States Government officials to reflect the grave concern with which the United States views the enactment of the Anti-Secession Legislation to their counterpart officials in the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”

Finally, the resolution concludes that “the Government of the United States should reaffirm that the future of Taiwan should be resolved by peaceful means and with the consent of the people of Taiwan.”

Several Members of Congress have expressed their intent to immediately co-sponsor the resolution.

FAPA President Ming-chi Wu, Ph.D. says: “The danger the ASL will bring to the status quo and stability in the Taiwan Strait is explicitly spelled out in this resolution. The introduction of the resolution today affirms that Members of Congress are very concerned about the threat the ASL poses just like many pundits in this town and the Taiwanese government are.”

Wu continues, “The ASL will give the Beijing government a free pass to wildly interpret this law once it is passed by the National People’s Congress in March.

Wu concludes, “It is no coincidence that when the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress passed the proposed Anti-Secession law, Beijing at the same time released its 2004 Defense White Paper vowing to “crush Taiwan” if necessary. It has long been United States policy to support a peaceful resolution of the cross-strait stalemate with the express consent of the people of Taiwan. The ASL does exactly the opposite.”